When it comes to the world of video games on the PC, some of the most popular games available are MMORPG titles. These same titles also offer the most profitability for the game studios thanks to monthly subscriptions and intense fan bases for the titles.

Blizzard recently launched the second expansion pack for the wildly popular World of Warcraft MMO called Wrath of the Lich King. Blizzard officially acknowledged this week that Lich King has broken the sales record to become the top selling PC game ever in its first 24 hours of release.

Lich King sold a whopping 2.8 million copies in its first 24 hours of availability. Interestingly, the previous first place for day one sales was the first expansion pack for World of Warcraft called The Burning Crusade.

The subscriber base for World of Warcraft is massive at 11 million players globally making the title the crown jewel in the Blizzard games catalog. Blizzard says that over 15,000 stores opened at midnight globally to participate in the launch of Wrath of the Lich King.

Unlike some popular midnight launch events, there are no reports of anyone being shot waiting to get a copy of the game. However, one boy in Europe did collapse after playing the expansion for 24 hours straight without taking a break or eating. Some UK officials and parents fear that the game is too addictive for young players to handle.

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I steer away from games that charge me just to play the game online. I've already bought the game, bought the console/PC I'm playing it on and paid for the monthly access to internet in general. I DON'T need another monthly bill just to access your precious servers.

If that was the only option available I'd stick with it but with the thousands of games on PC that let you play for free online and and the hundreds of games on PS3 (and I guess Wii) that let you play for free online, I fail to see the reasoning behind consumers that encourage this behavior from game developers.

And because of this, we all know Blizzard is going to have monthly fees for Starcraft 2. "Oh, but this is an MMORPG whereas that is an RTS. They don't need to charge us because they aren't storing as much data." BULLSH*T! They already divided the game into three, do you really think they won't take advantage of consumers' stupidity and slap a monthly fee onto that as well? Hell, I'd do it too if I've convinced 11 million people to do it for WoW.

This is why people boycott things, so that companies can be pushed to either stop doing things or just crash and burn (Circuit City). So I know that this will fall unto deaf ears, but I urge people to do this: if Starcraft 2 will charge you for online play, then boycott it. FORCE Blizzard to realize that enough is enough and stop double, triple, quadruple and fu*ktuple dipping on consumers.

You don't really know much about WoW do you? You're not just paying for the servers (oh, btw, how many other games have hundreds of servers capable of supporting thousands of people at once that are free?). You're paying for the constant updates, maintenance, and new content. Between Burning Crusade and Lich King, there were two new 5-man dungeons and a major 25-man raid added, along with a whole new zone. They've overhauled the gear itemization across the board, changed the talent trees and class mechanics, added several levels of PvP Arena gear, and generally implemented constant improvement to the game. No other free (as in monthly fee) game has had this level of support and development.

quote: ...paying for the constant updates, maintenance, and new content...blah, blah, blah.

Heard that all before and it only seems to be the MMO junkies that are convinved of it. That stuff is moot. Blizzard is making mass profits off of MMO junkies with that monthly charge. $15 per month? That's $180 per year. Multiply that by the "millions" playing WOW. Sorry, doesn't cost that much for updates and maintenance.

You are filling pockets and need to accept that. Should get outside and see some of that sunlight too.

I buy a lot less games whenever I'm playing an MMO. During the 6 months I didn't play WoW (I'd quit finally), I bought more single player games in those 6 months than I did in the previous 3 years playing WoW.

I don't get why mcturkey was voted down as all his points were on the money.

quote: You are filling pockets and need to accept that. Should get outside and see some of that sunlight too.

If you think you can create a MMPORG that is as continually entertaining to play without an online fee or for a more "reasonable" fee and still turn a profit, then go for it. Currently 11 million WoW players do feel the fees are worth the entertainment value. If you don't like paying fees, look elsewhere for your gaming entertainment. What do you want the government to step in and start regulating what they can charge? Or perhaps you think they should fund "twelve step" programs for us MMO addicts? Or establish mandatory per-day play limits so we can "see the sunlight"?

How come of all the topics on games i've ever seen its only a huge deal with the game is WoW that people get their panties in a bunch.

Since when its is "wrong, evil, bad, immoral" for a company to charge for their product --- oh wait don't answer that...I know the mindset -- if you are a small time operation making say $1 million an entire year ...let's not critique that but if you happen to make a hit that is wildly successful so you make droves and droves of money off it -- THEN its open season? This is the same logic why folks ORIGINALLY started hating Microsoft...there's a complex in this world that folks are fine if you do "ok" for yourself but if you do "extremely well" then its not cool -- even if its completely legal and not harming anyone...well except for egos.

BTW I play the game and I agree some folks play too much and should see the real world more often.....I watch VERY little TV during the week though so my justification is -- some people watch 3 hours or 4 hours of TV on a work night, I play computer games. As for money I justify it as some people spend $5 a day on cigarettes, I spend $12 a MONTH on my hobby.

One thing you fail to take into account is history. Lets look at some facts that were relevant to the time when the game came out:1) All MMOs charged 15$/month period.2) The largest subscriber base ever reached on any MMO was 400,000 subscribers3) It took 10 years to reach that number.4) WoW had been in development for around 5 years.

Looking at this information Blizzard decided1) They should also charge 15$2) They should plan on having 400K subscribers in around 2 years3) We have spent a crapload of money on development and servers and BANDWIDTH and want to recoup it while also developing more content, maintaining the servers, and hiring a huge support staff to provide 24/7 support to customers.

When the game came out they had server capacity for 400K people, which they thought would give them plenty of time to expand. They had 250K at the end of the first 24 hours, and 500K by the end of the week and 1 million by the end of the month. The game was wildly more sucessful than anyone could have anticipated. They had to buy more servers, and fast, and hire more support staff fast, and they needed more bandwidth and fast. Getting all of those things, fast, takes a lot of money. For those around at the beginning we all remember the lag and the poor gaming experience that was to be had because the servers could not handle the load at all, the poor response times to problems, and the really long maintenance periods where they had to move their entire infrastructure to a new location that could handle the bandwidth demands. Blizzard also doesn't outsource and does everything in house. This means they also needed more office space. Office space isn't cheap. They have since moved into a much larger location than they used to be.

Also since the game came out they have added even more servers, more locals, more translations, Upgraded the servers to the point where 3 times the previous max load is now considered a light load (that is a very big and costly upgrade), added loads of new content, 2 expansions, as well as started development of 3 new games, hired more and more people, and much much more.

So sure, they may be making a shload of money, but they are also spending a lot of it. Not all of it, that would be stupid to not leave yourself plenty of cash on hand, but still a good chunk of it goes to operating expenses. And they may be making a lot more than they ever thought they would. Does the fact that the product was more sucessful than anticipated (allowing for more freedom to do what they do best, make more games) mean they are obligated to change their profit plan? No. If 11 million people think 15$ (or 13$ if they buy 6 months at a time) a month is worth paying, why should they lower the price? If the product sells extremely well in its current price bracket and continues to set new sales records there is no reason for them to change what so ever. On the contrary they have been enabled to do what they haven't ever before been able to do: making 4 games concurrently. Diablo 3, Starcraft 2, WoW & Co, and the unannounced but confirmed to exist MMO set in a new gaming universe for the company. Previously they had 2 games going at once, max. With the new source of revenue the success WoW has brought they have been enabled to do more of what we want them to. Make good, quality, entertaining games. They still support and make patches for all their other titles still too.

Sure i may be padding the companies pockets, but i do that no matter what product i buy. Also, with them i know for fact that they are going to do with my money what i want them to: Make more games that i love. I can't say the same about many other companies.

What we have here is the laws of economics and capitalism working at their finest. *Everyone* is happy. I get to play great games, the employees of the company get to make great games (which they love to do). It's win win.

I totally agree. Blizzard puts out a great product, and paying for it enables more great products. I can't even count all the happy hours I've spent playing Blizzard games with friends and family. Blizzard is one company I don't mind giving money to.

As for the value, think about this: A movie ticket is $10.50 where I live. Add popcorn and a drink and it's easily $15.00. An average movie lasts 1.5 hrs. So, going to the movies, you get 1.5 hrs for $15. Playing WoW, you get pretty much as many hours as you want for a whole month for $15. Much better value, IMO.

I think the best math I have to support this is the following:All my characters= ~100 days played time.(14*15$=210$)/(100*24=2400hrs)= 8.75 cents per hour of entertainment. That isn't counting all the free time i've been given as compensations either. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

quote: Sure -- any other form of entertainment that doesn't require a monthly subscription. Counterstrike, Battlefield, COD4, half life single player, public television, a board game, solitaire, and so on.

COD4,HL, CS -- excellent games and I play them as well as WoW (though rightnow I'm way into Fallout 3).

But are serious with public televesion, a board game and solitaire?

I think examples in disagreements are good and all but only if its valid. If its an example that under normal circumstances then it doesn't count. For instance I would NEVER play a board game or solitare and public TV is horrible -- so there fore those are all weak and moot examples.

1) It's not about the money, it's the principle behind it. You already showed your support for buying the game, the least they can do is give you a free online experience, especially since so many others do it. If you want to be an idiot and spend your money on monthly passes just to play a game then go ahead, but if that leads to future rip offs thanks to it then I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be the only one pissed off about it.

2) I'm tired of companies being extra greedy and ripping off customers. Broadband internet access alone costs $30 a month and most of the time the speeds are too low for gaming. Games are now costing 60 bucks. PC's to run them cost 500 to 1000 dollars. Enough with the damn nickel and diming and let me play my game online for free.

So now I'm an "idiot" for paying $12 a month to play game? And MMO's should be free?

I think you are mixing your personal ideology up with economics. Would I love for WoW to be free to play -- hell yeah I would. Would I pay ANY amount they raise it to play hell NO I wouldn't. Unlike some folks I do have a budget set for myself for recurring monthly gaming expenses (that budget is about $30 a month btw if you are playing the home game and following along...I currently do NOT spend $30 a month, but that is the amount I'd draw the line at.)

Look -- I was just busting your stones because you are obviously very upset over the fact of Blizzard charging for their product and then charging to play it. But I'd trumpet your cause in a heart beat if I thought it would make a difference.

The other thing that we do, I say we because you do it in your arguments, and I've done it in the past - is play the compare game. "Well Guild Wars is free so why can't WoW be free as well!" ....."Don't tell me that it costs X amount of money to pay for bandwidth, I'm buying my bandwidth for Y amount of money!"....Companies exist to turn a profit -- and they all have different expenses to consider. Hands down i can tell you from playing WoW and Guild Wars -- the content in WoW is much more refined (much bigger "play world" as well) and I can bet WoW is a more expensive operation than Guild Wars or many other free to play online games. PLUS -- don't kid yourself , the free to play guys aren't saints.....if they had an enormous subscription base and people constantly signing up to play -- my bet is they would start talking around their board room meetings "so guys...we are getting incredibly popular -- I don't think we can be free to play much longer....".

FPS games are just stupid to mention as an argument to how they can be free to play online so why can't an MMO. Not saying you did or didn't make that assumption (I honestly forget now to be honest..lol)...but if you did... An MMO is a huge persistent world, taht requires whole server farms to run. An FPS is a friggin server you throw install the game and then configure the network client to offer it up for folks to play on. Its like saying McDonald's gave out free cheeseburgers , so why doesn't a five star restaurant give out free Filet Mignon and Lobster -- the expenses are completely different.

Finally back to me being an idiot for paying $12 a month...I'm a cheap bastard. I penny pinch all the time (especially now with this economy)...don't smoke...don't drink...one of the very few "luxuries" I allow myself to enjoy is $12 a month to play a computer game I realy have fun with. I work - my money is earned, so its not like its hand out money I'm spending either. Aside from the game and few DVDs I buy here and there -- I really don't splurg that much on myself. So sorry I don't feel like an idiot at all for spending $12 a month. Why not tell a smoker they are idiots for spending $60 a week?

Players vote with their dollars. You are entitled to your opinion, but you shouldn't prevent other players who see a value in the service from paying for the service. You have voted with your dollars, and they have voted with theirs.

Really though, the amazing thing about this expansion and its success is the lack of content that is really added.

For $40 you get: one new class that many, many others are all leveling at the same time as you, one new profession that makes gold but the fun of it is subjectively pretty low, and you get 10 more levels, a couple dungeons, and some new items.

Now, that's a pretty good amount, don't get me wrong, but that is being sold for the same price as the whole original game. It's also being sold to players who already pay $15 per month, and only available to players who already have The Burning Crusade.

Personally, I just started WoW a couple months ago. I have no toons at 60 let alone 70, and have not bought TBC yet. For a player like me, WotLK is a relative rip-off. It costs me $60 plus my monthly subscription for a very small portion relative to what I already have.

This a classic example of a luxury item behaving independent of the supply/demand dynamics. You don't get anywhere near $40 of relative value (could by a complete game for that instead) but since some people have extra money and want to be 'leet' they will pay for it.

No, but they have watered down a genre that was originally fun to play and challenging. Now most of the new MMORPG's try and emulate WoW in some way and fail to inovate and advance MMO's past the same inane game play with zero risk vs reward.

They have taken a past-time that we grew up with, distilled it to its most addictive form and packaged it in a fimilar setting.

It is the ultimate technological addiction; UO was pretty bad back in the day also, but atleast you got angry when someone killed you/robbed you blind/ hijacked your house and that may of saved you the agony of playing any longer. WOW and other MMORPGs are a magical fantasy land of fairies and butterflies that makes you feel like your high all the time and that your actually acheiving something, while in reality; your just plodding around like a gob pressing buttons repeatively.

The worst part is, those people who are actually closer to reality are the ones using it to make money off all the poor deluded saps. Though, I would spare a thought that alot of them are sucked into it themselves...

Poor buggers.

The Chinese were right to call it on this one and limit exposure, atleast thats a few thousand marriages and relationships saved, and thousands more kids who have parents who arnt zombies infront of a screen.

On with the mindless nonsense, and the destruction of our social abilities!

As opposed to the many healthy relationships started via one night stands from bars or clubs. To each his or her own really. I didn't personally meet anyone from playing WoW, but I have friends who have, as well as married couples who play together, whole families who play together, and people who have made great friends. If I had kids I would much rather play WoW with them than bring them to a football game where they can see fat retards get drunk off $9 beers and scream obscenities. People always say games like this ruin people's social skills, but I've always seen it as a way for some of the socially inept to have better social experiences. Sometimes there are some epeens waved around, but such is every experience on the internet, including here. Everyone is so quick to judge as if all of your lives were perfect.

very good points. i agree, different strokes for different folks, but WoW doesnt have any face to face social interaction and is a very sedentary form of hobby. Sure u can type your way through a conversation, but how beneficial is that to the advancement of a young persons daily social skills? Not that being a couch potatoe is any better, again WoW is just one form of sedantary lifestyles among many, but the attention it garners is ridiculous.

And on a sidenote, its very true that $40 is a rip off considering how little it adds compared to WoW vanilla, but if so many customers are buying it then blizzard has no incentive to lower the price.

Do you have links to news stories backing this claim up or are you just assuming this? If you wanted to be anti social you wouldn't play an MMORPG it's actually the exact opposite of the point behind the game. In the 4 years or so the game has been around I have met hundreds of players and not one of them was the least bit anti social. Seriously, it's like saying lots of people became arsons because the boy scouts taught them how to light fires.

It amazes me what people will put thier money into and then defend the horsecrap all at the same time. Blizzard is walking to the bank luaghing like hell at people who actually play this complete mockery of a game. I have played WOW before, in fact, I leveled a warrior up to 60 in very little time. I had some else pay for me to play simply because they wanted me to play WOW that bad. It's crazy. For me, the game paly really stinks and the graphics are subpar by any description. after about 7 weeks of playing I ust stopped, hell I got tired of feeling like I just watched a teletubbie marathon every time I played WOW. I played Starcraft years back and it was awesome, but I'm afraid that I will not play SC2 if you have to pay to play. I do not plan to line Blizzards pocket with money as many other s do. You do the math, blizzard has 11.5 million subscribers @ an avg. of $14 per month, which totals in @ 1.92 Billion dollars a year. All that money is not needed to keep up thier subpar servers, which appear to go down alot. Thats just what I hear so chalk that up as hear say.All this money for a game that is addictive, to say the least, and has dated gameplay along with shitty graphics. Someone please tell me why people continue to throw money at this huge monster of shit.

Blizzard is the real gold farmers here , and all of you WOW players are funding thier poorly designed game, for what ever reason. maybe some of you zombie like people need to stop bending over and taking one up the tailpipe every month. maybe that would get Blizzards attention enough to put out a real game worth $15 a month.

I spent probably more than my fair share of time playing. I was probably just as addicted as some with over 200 days /played.

It depends on your style/time I guess. Raids can be fun, especially if you like the group of people. But for people with a limited amount of time, it does tend to get boring, plus you get stuck in pickup groups which usually suck. If you play a lot you get involved in the community and it gets better.

Once I stopped playing so much, I quickly got bored and quit altogether. I resubscribed once the first expansion came out and got 2 of my characters to level 70, on the 3rd character I got bored and quit at 60 something.

I don't think I'm going to play the new expansion though, I think I've already wasted enough time. 200 days, wonder what I could have done with 200 days...

That's why you set a schedule. I don't play WoW. I play RFO. I play during weekdays, as I get off at 2200 and nothing's open at that time, cept the occassional bar/club. Not like anyone goes to them on weekdays anyways.

On the weekends I don't play at all, unless I feel lazy and don't want to go somewhere at all. Can't always be driving 100+ km away to somewhere interesting.

No, really. You're making a fallacious sweeping generalization when you make that kind of claim about the WoW population. The majority of the WoW community I know and/or play with consist of professionals, college students, and gamers who actually enjoy the game in their free time. I know a few who genuinely don't, but they have real life issues of their own that can't be attributed to the game.

Despite what the Wachowski Brothers would have you believe, ignorance is truly crass. Don't perpetuate it.

No I'm not. Go into any of the major game cities and read the general chat, everyone complains about everything constantly. It says more about how people just like to complain than about any real flaws in the game, but it's hardly a " fallacious sweeping generalization "

Using "everyone" makes it a sweeping generalization. If "everyone" truly was complaining in general chat, you would not even be able to read the comments because they would scroll by instantaneously.

If you enjoy WoW, it is a great value in terms of hours of entertainment / dollar. Same with a lot of first person shooters with good online play. If you don't like either type of game, don't play them. I don't see why anyone has to be so upset about the fact that millions of other people enjoy playing the game and are ok with paying a monthly fee to do so.

well, here's another that believes it to be one of the most boring games out there. The only reason I kept playing was to get one character to level 60, just cuz I felt like I had spent the money, so I should have something to show for it. All I had to show for it after I did was a bunch of wasted time.

Video games in general are luxury items. Every time I hear someone negatively describe the expansion pack they mention that it only adds 10 more levels and a couple dungeons, but never that it adds a new continent which includes new mobs, cities, lands, battlegrounds for pvp, and quests which progress the main story line. Which is everything a expansion normally does on a MMORPG. TBC never even added a new class, so that's something this one has above the earlier expansion.

I do agree $40 is a bit greedy on Blizzard's part though, however, it doesn't seem to hinder sales any.

I believe there was a new continent and more dungeons and stuff in this one. Afterall, they needed to expand for that extra 10 levels. Of course they're edging people on, but the great thing is, if you utilize the game properly, it's really a whole lot like Morrowind The Elder Scrolls III. You have lots to do even after you hit level 80. Hell, you can get another character to have fun on. And further more, hordes are fun, especially Britney Spears (Female Blood elf).

I just started playing the game, but I believe it is a whole lot funner than Runescape, Conquer Online, Rappelz, and Tibia.

Another thing: You get what you pay for. Those games generally have laggy server response, terrible graphics or a lot of issues with the graphics patch after patch after patch, and I have not seen any of the likes on WoW.

However, I'm a very dynamic person. I get bored of things easily, and I can't say that I won't get bored of WoW, and I suppose I'd never get addicted to it then. Hahaha.

Secondly, if I really want WotLK, I can play for free elsewhere. Free expansion, no subscriptions. F-r-e-e. That, combined with the fact that the expansion costs as much as the whole 0-60 game means it is irrefutably not as good a value.

You can pay for it, that's great. I'll probably pay for it later too. I'd actually already own it if you didn't have to buy TBC for WotLK to work-that's my real problem here is anybody who didn't own TBC (relatively small number) has to spend $20 extra to get the new expansion, and I don't like it. That's life, and I'll eventually pony up the greenbacks, I just don't like it.

You probably should take the advice that your therapist gives and take yourself and your role in WoW a little less seriously.

For most people the following is true.Original game: 0-60 = 9 days /played.TBC: 60-70 =~9days /playedWotLK: 70-80 = ~9days /played

Sounds like the same amount of play for the money to me. Northrend is actually a pretty big place. Much bigger than outland was. Something i also think about when i buy a game like WotLK is a comparison to the next book in a series. There is more story for me to read and i get to find out how the overall plot ends. My point is there are just as many, if not more, ways to find the value of the purchase as their are to find reasons to not buy it.

quote: Personally, I just started WoW a couple months ago. I have no toons at 60 let alone 70, and have not bought TBC yet. For a player like me, WotLK is a relative rip-off. It costs me $60 plus my monthly subscription for a very small portion relative to what I already have.

Well that just means you don't have to buy it. You can wait, till either it comes down in price, or never get it at all. It's not like you have to buy it to continue playing your regular content.

The other thing is, the value is subjective. Making say 5 bucks an hour, you have to work 8 hours to be able to afford the expansion. If you like the game, it offers maybe 100 hours or more of entertainment. You could spend that 40 bucks on about 5 movie tickets, and only get 15 hours of entertainment(LONG MOVIES), or similarly have the same effects in other entertainment venues. I've also seen many video games that you only get about 20 hours of content in that sell for 50-60 dollars.

You can't possibly level a character from 1-80 in 14 hours, it took the best levelers around 30 hours to get from 70-80. Anyone who claims to get to 80 in 14 hours is flat out lying, or using some kind of ridiculous exploit.

I don't think you really have a grasp on the differences between the content areas. Frankly, story/lore-wise, Northrend is miles above Vanilla WoW and trounces The Burning Crusade by far. In fact, Vanilla WoW was horrible when it came to having a good enveloping story. I think about way back when... did we have a reason to go into Molten Core? Blackwing Lair? I mean sure, we knew who was the boss at the end and said boss was surely not a good person... so we must slay him!?

But in comparison, there was very little interaction with them outside of the raid dungeon story-wise. The Burning Crusade wasn't much better and Blizzard even admitted this. They initially set Illidan up to be the "big bad meanie" yet, he never showed up until you fight him in the Black Temple.

Wrath of the Lich King changes that dramatically as you'll interact with the Lich King or visions of Arthas in almost every zone. Although some of the scripted events are more meaningful than others. It's still nice to see some cohesion between zones, rather than a zone mostly having its own little sub-plot.

Now, to address the issue of the price of the content... well, that's simply subjective. It's no different than the price that TBC launched at and WotLK is by far better. The only complaint I would bring up about content is how almost all items look the same. It seems they spent a majority of the time on everything else and just rehashed the same models (no re-colorings either) over and over again. I don't think it's a big deal, but it's rather easy to notice and it seems much more prevalent to me than it did in TBC. Others may complain about the lack of difficulty in end-game content.

Now, your comment of $60 threw me off for a second, but then I realized you were referring to the fact that you need to buy TBC to be able to play WotLK. That is true, but then you're forgetting the fact that all of the content in Outland and Northrend combined is actually fairly large. I would say that the two combined actually provide around as many quests as you get in Vanilla WoW. You also get quite a few dungeons and raid instances with the two combined.

The funny thing is MC had to do with why the dark iron dwarfs were doing what they were doing.

BWL had to do with his big plans to take over and what got you there was this little quest line that you did at 28 to find the king of stormwind that ony and kidnapped. When never did save the king, he just poped up one day after a patch with no reason why. Prodmore told you at the end of the quest line that she would let you know if they found anything else out where the king is being held but that never happend. Blizzard did this on a few quests lines that you started but they never finished them and do not plan to. They lost their first main story writer.

In patch 2.3 they actually added on some more to the story line quests when they revamped dustwallow. It still dead ended but it gave you more clues as to who was behind the disappearance of the king and what not. It looked like they were going to continue it, but after 3.0 they changed the quest text on the last 2 quests in the new line from 2.3 to say "we figured it out totally, go tell bolvar" and "that's great that we know for sure now. we already kicked her out of town, but now we know who to take full retribution against. Tell jaina we'll kill everyone" and then "ok" from jaina. So that is how the line ends now. Kind of anti climactic, and i wonder what they will do for the Ony key quest (if it is even still in the game) now, but such is the way of things.

They do call it an expansion for a reason. anyways, most of the time people expect way too much and think ill go to this MMO its better then just stop playing all together when they realize they are morons for trying to think at all.

Playing WoW has been the biggest money saver for me ever. Playing WoW for just 1 evening where i would other wise go to a bar easily saves me 100$. Just 1 evening at a cinema is more expensive then the whole months subscription (here i Denmark).

What is really amazing is that WoW should be giving these expansions away for free... yes free!

Hear me out a sec...

1. It takes the same amount of $$$ to develope an expansion for a game with a player base of 50,000 as it does for a player base of 50,000,000

2. If it costs $5,000,000 to make an expansion it would cost a company with 500,000 subscribers $10 per subscriber to produce an expansion... with 5,000,000 subscribers it would cost them $1 each, 10,000,000 and it costs them 50 cents each.

Now the numbers above are just for demonstrative purposes but you can see my point... with WoW and people paying anywhere from $10-$15 each month to play and Blizzard cannot afford every two years to give up 50 cents from each subscriber?

GREED!

Yes businesses are there to make a profit but this is borderline silly. Yes Sony and EQ2 charged $40 for their recent expansion (with about the same content) but you can at least understand that with a player population of 300,000 that they need to at lease break even but when we read that WoW have a population of at least 10 million paying subscribers and you tell me why they need to charge $40 a copy?

Because they can will be what some people say. Well I guess that is the answer and it's also why I do not play WoW.

It's a game for the masses. Well polished, stable and tuned so that every computer from the C64 through Hal 2000 can play it :)

I don't knock WoW aside from one factor... it's ruining every other current and potential MMORPG because the business end of gaming (which does not care about innovation and only $$$) want other MMORPG's to measure up to the success of WoW. This kills off risk takers who may want to move MMORPG's from the tired old mold that we have been stuck with for years.

You're making a common mistake. The market price is not production costs plus a fixed percentage profit. The market price is the balance point between how much Blizzard wants to charge and how little people want to pay. In other words, the high cost is as much a result of people feeling the game is worth $10-$15/mo as it is Blizzard's desire to make money. People seem to feel it's worth $10-$15/mo, so your desire for a lower price is actually more indicative of your greed than Blizzard's..

The (IMHO) more important point you make is that it costs the same to develop an expansion for 50,000 players as for 50,000,000 players. This is true not just of games, but software and media (e.g. books, music, and movies) in general. Unlike manufacturing where you have R&D costs and then a per item production cost, these items have nearly zero production cost. The debate over who should benefit from that zero (re)production cost (content creators, end users, or both) is central to the debate on piracy and copyright, and was the inspiration for open source software. Our eventual answer to it will have an even greater impact should Star Trek-style replicators ever become real. Then it won't be about just intellectual property, it'll also be about physical property.

quote: People seem to feel it's worth $10-$15/mo, so your desire for a lower price is actually more indicative of your greed than Blizzard's..

Man, are really serious about that statement, because if you are then you have issues. It's not greed that makes people want this game cheaper, its the fact that the game play is so lame. If someone wants real value for thier money then they are not greedy. I have played WOW simply because someone else wanted me to play so bad that they payed for it. After about 6-7 weeks and obtaining a level 60 with a warrior I quit playing. I got really tired of feeling like I had just watched a marathon of the teletubbies every time I play it. I can tell you that if anyone here is greedy, it's Blizzard and this person you said this too. I don't usually say this to people but I just have to now because I think your comment deserves it, you have to be an idiot to think this person is greedy for wanting this subpar expansion cheaper. For me its not a matter of the money, hell if it cost $100 a month, which I can afford without thinking about, the game is still not worth it.

There is a game that lets you play for free and it's based on a trilogy of the most amazing books in history. Can you guess what the name of that MMORPG is? p.s. Wow rocks too! Great escape from your day as long as you keep up the excercise and social life of course.